Costa Rica Tropical Lowlands Photography Workshop

Tortuguero National Park

Tortuguero National Park of Costa Rica is a remote photographer’s paradise. This tropical park hosts a diversity of wildlife due to its multiple habitats including rainforests, swamps, mangroves, beaches and fresh water lagoons.

On the Caribbean coast, Tortuguero National Park covers over 77,000 acres and we will explore this region by boat photographing the many birds, monkeys, lizards, and reptiles that call this area home.

Due to the remote nature of this park, our captain will meet and transport the group with a boat as we leave the roads behind. We will take the scenic one-hour trip as we wind down a small river until we reach the fresh water lagoons of the park reaching our luxury lodge for the next 3 nights. Each day we will explore the region by boat in the morning and evenings when the light is superior. During the mid-day hours, we will take opportunities around the lodge for some frog and lizard photography, as well as discuss photography techniques.

The chartered 24-passenger boat will only be taking 6 photographers guests to allow the best photography opportunities and provide everyone plenty of room to get that fantastic shot.

Private chartered 24-passenger boat to explore the wildlife of the freshwater lagoons just for our group so everyone will have a row to themselves.

Some of the species we hope to photograph while at Tortuguero National Park:

Spider monkeys
Howler monkeys
White-faced capuchin monkey
Spectacled caiman
Green basilisk lizard
Green Iguana
Red-webbed tree frog
Strawberry poison-dart frog
Central American river otter
Lesser long-nosed bats
Cattle egret
Slaty-tailed trogon
Snowy egret
American Pygmy kingfisher
Amazon kingfisher
Mangrove swallow
Anhinga
Green heron
Northern jacana
Keel-billed toucan
Black river turtle
Black-throated trogon
Sunbittern
Ringed kingfisher
Purple gallinule
Mealy parrot
Greater potoo
Bare-throated tiger heron
Sunbird
Great kiskadee
Red-lored amazon
Passerini’s tanager
Montezuma oropendola
Double-toothed kite
Tiny hawk
Black-mandibled toucan
Little blue heron
Green ibis
Red lore parrot
Yellow-crowned night heron

Northern Costa Rica Rainforest

 
We will spend the next three days photographing at the ecolodge and surrounding areas.

At first light we will be ready on the perches for the toucans, parrots and many different tanagers that visit for the fresh fruit. After breakfast each day we will head over to the blind built for photographer to photograph the spectacular white feathered King Vulture as well as the Black and Turkey Vultures.

As the sun gets high and the quality light fades, we will look for opportunities for some macro images for subjects like the Eyelash palm pit viper and the colorful Costa Rican frogs. We will also take some time to discuss photography techniques and post processing of images.

In the late afternoon, we will turn our attention back to the perches and the feeders as the birds visit for a snack.

As the sun sets, we now look to photograph the Long-tongued bats with a multi-flash system producing 1/5,000 second exposures at night. By incorporating 7 speedlights synchronized with radio triggers, we can produce stunning images freezing the bats as they feed on the nectar of the local flowers.

Some of the species that visit the ecolodge:

Black-mandibled toucan
Broad-billed motmot
Great Green Macaw
Brown-hooded parrot
Black-cowled oriole
Great curassow
Central American pygmy owl
Blue-gray tanagers
Passerini’s tanager
Golden-hooded tanager
Palm tanager
Montezuma oropendola
Red-legged honeycreeper
Chestnut-colored woodpecker
Black-crowned tityra

Eyelash palm pit viper

White-nosed coati

Central American Agouti

King vulture

Black vulture

Turkey vulture

Sarapiqui Local Preserves

As we arrive, our hosts will welcome us with a tour highlighting the wildlife that is currently in the area. We will then spend our time photographing the species of interest as we enjoy the hospitality of our hosts.

The frogs of Costa Rica are always a highlight of the trip, and we will work with these colorful creatures on interesting perches, nice backgrounds and lighting.

Each location offers very different opportunities to photograph different species and the below list is a sample of the species that visit these locations:

Scarlet macaws
Great green macaws
Red-eyed tree frogs
Blue jean frogs
White-headed capuchin monkeys
Yellow-naped parrots
Crimson-fronted parakeet
Euphonias
White collared manakin
Helmet Headed lizards
Blue Morpho Butterflies
Owl butterflies
Long-billed hermit hummingbird
Honduran white bats
Green Emerald Basilisk Lizards
Spectacled caiman
Blue-gray tanagers
American Pygmy Kingfishers
Long-tailed tyrants
Passerini’s Tanagers

Resplendent Quetzals and Hummingbirds

Each morning we will go out with a local guide to find this color bird and enjoy taking photographs of it. We will then turn our focus to photograph the exotic hummingbirds in this area.

We will 3 days at this location to take in all this location has to offer.

A male resplendent quetzal brings food back to the nest

Some of the hummingbirds we will photograph:

• Violet sabrewing hummingbird (Campylopterus hemileucurus)
• Lesser violetear hummingbird (Colibri thalassinus)
• Fiery-throated hummingbird (Panterpe insignis)
• Purple-throated mountaingem hummingbird (Lampornis calolaemus)
• White-throated mountaingem hummingbird (Lampornis cinereicauda) also known as Grey-tailed mountaingem
• Green-crowned brilliant hummingbird (Heliodoxa jacula)
• Talamanca (Magnificent) hummingbird (Eugenes fulgens)
• Volcano hummingbird (Selasphorus flammula)

More information about the Resplendent Quetzal